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Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis is rejecting suggestions that the number of visitors coming from China could be affected by a frost in relations with the Asian superpower.
The turning back of an Air New Zealand flight to Shanghai and allegations of extra inspections of New Zealand exports at Chinese ports is also being seen by media and Opposition parties as signs of a Chinese crack down in response to cabinet ruling out the use of technology from Chinese firm Huawei for the next generation of telecommunications networks.
Mr Davis says such reporting is irresponsible and can become self-fulfilling.
"One point three billion Chinese and they find one guy who says 'I'm changing my holiday plans, I'm not going to New Zealand now,' and they paint it as a trend, and it's absolute rubbish. We've had strong growth in visitor numbers from China year on year, we're expecting numbers to grow this year, so there's not an issue," he says.
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